The shadows have been following Basia Bulat around for some time now, but the folk singer-songwriter can see light peering around the corners.

Tall Tall Shadow is the opening track to the Toronto native’s third album of the same title.

"It’s an opening statement that we’re all going through turns of life and turns of darkness," she explains. As the listener progresses through the tracks, they’ll discover that little nuggets of light will pop through the darkness.

Two months before she was set to record the greatly anticipated follow-up to her Juno-nominated Heart of My Own, Bulat suffered a deep loss. Without going into any further detail, she simply states it was time to start over.

"Instinct – it just didn’t feel right and I wasn’t connecting with what I wanted to write," Bulat says. "(After the loss), I knew I wanted to find things that feel honest to me."

Starting over, embracing honesty, and following instincts has lead to the 10 songs found on Tall Tall Shadow, which focuses on the two sides of emotions.

"It’s a duality we experience. It’s something that is sad but I didn’t focus or dwell on the darkness. I wanted to make something beautiful and uplifting," she says.

Her vocals on each track speak to that – while strong, they reveal hints of vulnerability.

Tall Tall Shadow incorporates new instrumental ideas, which takes a slight departure from her usual minimalist, folk-ish sound (most notably the track Someone, which features a drum machine), and she credits co-producers Arcade Fire’s Tim Kingsbury and Grammy-winning engineer Mark Lawson for pushing her boundaries.

In 2007, Bulat released her debut album Oh, My Darling which went on to make the 2008 Polaris shortlist. On tour to promote Oh, My Darling, she played a show at Zaphods, a club venue in Ottawa. The power went out during a song, but the audience kept the rhythm going with hand claps and she continued singing a cappella. The power returned after a few lines, she finished the song, and she thanked the crowd with tears in her eyes.

Five years later, she’s still stumbling upon the beams of light as they peek through the shadows.

Since the release of Oh, My Darling, she says the most important thing she has learned was to follow her instinct, just like the mindset she had going into the making of Tall Tall Shadow. If anything, sticking to her guns has all the more showcased the passion she has for being a musician. Following that philosophy became more apparent and relevant after her loss.

"(The songs of Tall Tall Shadow are) empowering to sing "- especially if you can escape your own self," she says. "Shadows in life can be beautiful or harsh, but you need both of them."

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